Ascent of Mount Washington on 2008-08-26

Ascent Trip Report

What an excellent hike followed by such a crappy summit, though it was expected. My friend Rob and I hiked this one from the standard trailhead. We took the Boot Spur route up the mountain to avoid the crowds, and it worked. We encountered only 2 descending groups and no others going up our way. The hike starts off in the trees and gains ground quite quickly. I felt like I was back in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah because of the steep elevation gain. We made great time to the tree line, and stopped for a bite to eat. The weather was clear and beautiful to this point.

After clearing the tree line, we began to see clouds move in on the summit, which was kind of disappointing. We made it to Boot Spur in some pretty stiff wind and headed into the clouds. The hike from the top of Boot Spur to the summit is great, and nearly impossible to get lost on due to the well maintained trail, cairns, and signs. We made the summit no problem where we were greeted by throngs of fat people in cars. We snapped some quick pics and headed away from the lazy masses in disgust, taking the Tuckerman's Ravine trail back down for a chance to see some different scenery. The hike down was beautiful, but we encountered a lot more hikers headed up. At least they were hiking, not driving! It was a pretty good hike, and other than the wind chill, pretty easy.